President William Ruto met his predecessor, Uhuru Kenyatta Tuesday morning to address the concerns raised by the latter.
The closed-door meeting happened at State House, Nairobi in a rare meet-up after the August 2022 elections.
According to State House Spokesperson Hussein Mohammed, the President was concerned about the back and forth between the two leaders.
Head of Special Team
Ruto has since constituted a team which will look into the issues that were raised by Kenyatta’s Head of Communications – Kanze Dena.
The team will be chaired by the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei.
“This morning, President William Ruto had a conversation with his predecessor in office, the 4th President, President Uhuru Kenyatta, regarding concerns about facilitating the functioning of the retired President’s office.
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“President Ruto has consequently constituted a team, led by the Head of Public Service, to immediately address all the issues raised, including the location of the retired President’s office and the attendant staff establishment,” read the statement in part.
Kenyatta Claims Frustration
In a blatant speech at a press conference Monday, Kenyatta accused Ruto for refusing to pay for his office and denying him a budget for two consecutive fiscal years.
“In the 2023/2024 financial year, which ends in a few weeks, the budget allocation to this office was Ksh.503 million.
“The year is ending without the office having access to this allocation. The total amount for the two years that we have not had access to is about Ksh.1 billion,” said Dena.
Speaking at the Uhuru Kenyatta Institute in Nairobi, where the office of the retired president is based,Dena claimed that two senior officers of the former head of state have so far not had their contracts renewed and therefore haven’t received salaries for the past two years.
The two include Principal Secretary for Administration George Kariuki and herself – the Principal Secretary for Communications.
On the budget challenges, Dena noted that in the new year 2024/2025, the budget allocation is Ksh.579 million, adding that the officer is “waiting with bated breath to see if this will be honoured”.
“The quagmire the office is in is that the office cannot account for what has been used and where the money has been used as several requests and attempts to get budget returns from the accounting officer have fallen on deaf ears,” she said.
